Silent Hornets
by JoshOfTheZombies
Summary: Jay is dead but when Tim receives a voicemail from him he begins to think otherwise. Following the message Tim finds himself in the town of Silent Hill, where things are not as they seem. Can the sins of the past be forgiven? [No knowledge of SH2 is needed but major spoilers for MH for those who haven't finished the series. Hinted Jam]
1. In Restless Dreams

"You have no new messages. First saved message." the robotic words of the voice message system echo slightly in the rest stop bathroom. Tim knows well what the message will say. He's listened to it over a dozen times. He needs to listen to it. Remind himself that it's real and not another hallucination.

"Tim," Jay's voice crackles over the recording, "I don't know what's going on. I don't know how I got here. I'm in some... Some place. It's foggy but I think the sign says Silent Hill?" he paused, breathing heavy into his phone, "It- Everything's wrong here! The place is abandoned and I keep getting attacked by dogs and I keep hearing something flying around." the sound of running, creaking of stairs, "Listen, Tim I don't know if any of this is making sense, but I need you to help me. Please. I'll be here... Silent Hill..." the connection goes to static before cutting off with a beep.

Tim gave a heavy sigh, looking up from his phone to the mirror that hung on the dirty rest stop wall. He'd shaved. First time in a while he'd trusted himself enough with a razor. First time in a while he'd felt like himself. He pulled himself away from the frightened-eyed man in the mirror, throwing the disposable razor in the trash on his way outside. Fog rolled up from the lake down in the valley. It was thinner here, looking as thick as soup down over the town. That was Silent Hill, according to the signs he'd followed off the freeway. The road ahead was out, something about a sinkhole. But there was a path, narrow and winding, leading from this rest stop down the hill. It was too hard to see past the first bend, but Tim just knew that the path would get him into town. It had to.

The parking lot was barren. Just his car and some lonely van that looked like it'd been there for a while. No one came to Silent Hill anymore. There'd been some accident or something. He'd skipped those particular search results. Tim passed the van and took the steps down to the park path two at a time.

The fog through the trees made him paranoid. Anything could be hiding in there. It felt oppressive and unnatural. It was almost the same feeling he got from staring down the Operator. He jammed his hands in his pockets, grabbing the only bottle of pills he had left. He couldn't take one now, not if he wanted them to last till he found Jay, but he had them. He would be safe. They both would. He just had to remind himself of that. Keep your eyes on the path and walk. A mantra in his head. The path was long but it didn't take much time to travel. It sloped gently down into a large open field dotted with gravestones. "A Cemetery?" he mumbled to himself. Why would anyone end a nature trail in a cemetery?

Across the lot he could see a figure moving in the mist. A young woman with short dark hair was wandering from headstone to headstone, reading the engravings before shaking her head and moving on. Tim stood a moment, watching and wracking his brain for a way approach her without seeming strange. He needed directions but interrupting a mourner was quite possibly the worst thing to do. "Um, excuse me?"

The woman yelped, leaping up and away from where she's been tracing the lines of a long worn headstone. She stuttered, "I-I'm sorry... I-I... I was just-"

"No, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Tim held his hands up in an effort to calm her. She seemed scared, like she'd been caught trespassing. If anyone was trespassing here it was him. "It's just... I'm lost."

Her face screwed up in confusion. How could anyone get lost in a graveyard? How could anyone get so lost they WIND UP in a graveyard? "Lost?"

"Er," he felt incredibly stupid, "Yeah. That path back there?" he thumbed over his shoulder at the trail he'd followed down from the parking lot, "That leads to Silent Hill right?"

"Um, yeah. It's hard to see with all the fog but there's only the one road. You can't miss it." she shrugged and wrapped her arms around herself. Even in the knit sweater she was wearing she must have been cold.

"Thanks..." he stepped back, now was as good of a time as any to escape the increasingly awkward conversation.

"Wait!" she reached after him.

"Yeah...?"

"I think you'd better stay away. This uh... this town... there's something... wrong with it. It's kinda hard to explain but..." she trailed off.

"Jay said as much." He heaved a sigh, if Jay really was here that could be bad news. "Is it dangerous?"

"Maybe... And it's not just the fog either... It's..."

Tim held up a hand to stop her. "Thanks, for telling me. I'll be careful." he turned to head into town again. Jay might be in danger and he was not going to fail him again.

"I'm not lying!" the woman called after him.

"It's not that I don't believe you it's just... I have to go, whether it's dangerous or not. I have to."

"But why?"

"My friend... I'm looking for him. He's supposed to be here and I have to help him. I'd do anything to see him again." Tim could feel a blush threatening his cheeks, what on earth had made him phrase it like that? It made him sound like a love struck fool.

"Me too." she turned to look over the graves, "I'm looking for my mama- I mean... my mother. It's been so long since I've seen her."

Tim looked from the woman to the graves, then to the path into town. If she was looking for her mother in the cemetery...

"I thought my father and brother were here, but I can't find them either..." she paused to rest her hand on a nearby stone, "I-I'm sorry... It's not your problem-"

"No it's fine!" he reassured her, "I'll uh.. Keep an eye out for them. I hope you find them."

"Yeah you too..."

She didn't stop him as he turned down the path a third time. He knew if he did run into her family he'd have no way of knowing who they were. The town was mostly abandoned except for a few die hard citizens so he could only hope that it would be easy. He knew what it was like to be lost and alone, hoping for someone, anyone, to come help you. Tim almost wished he'd offered to stay with her so they could look together, but he knew how dangerous just being around him tended to get. It was bad enough that he'd dragged Brian and everyone into his problems, he didn't want another innocent getting hurt.

The exit of the cemetery was a huge metal gate that he had to throw his entire weight onto to get it to move. Years upon years of rust had sealed the hinges shut. The gate squealed and groaned, but eventually it opened wide enough to squeeze through and stayed that way.

The path was once again winding through the forest. One side lined with a dilapidated wooden fence. Tim could have sworn he heard feet crunching through the underbrush alongside him. As if there was someone following him from just out of sight. He shoved the paranoia out of his head forcefully, making himself stay focused on getting to town and trying to find Jay. He passed a sign that read 'Silent Hill Ranch', "At least I'm going the right way." As much as he tried to ignore the noises there was no doubt that there was something rustling around just past the fence. A dog, Tim reasoned with himself, or a deer. It couldn't be the Operator, that thing was silent, and all the people he knew that snuck around watching other people were dead...

The fences fell away to a wide open field, then the concrete side of the highway came into view. There were no cars and the side was covered in vines and cracks. No one had driven this segment in years. Here the path widened out and became a one lane road, curving underneath the overpass and leading to a chain link fence. "Danger, keep out." Tim read out loud. "As if trespassing signs ever did anything." He opened the gate and walked through to Silent Hill. The road was barely wide enough for a single vehicle with a tall cliff face on one side and a sheer drop on the other. It was unnervingly silent. The only sounds his footfalls and the faint howling of the wind. Tim almost preferred the dog-deer-stalker-thing he'd left behind. It was at least ten minutes before the road opened up, the cliff side curving away to the right and leveling out on the left. Soon Tim began to see the starts of civilization, if you count long closed, vaguely racist tourist attractions and 7 foot privacy fencing civilization. And then suddenly he was at a cross roads. The fog had gotten so thick he could hardly see ten feet in front of him but he didn't bother to look for cars before crossing to the other side.

Across the street he found what looked to have once been a flower shop. Outside on a bench laid an open first aid kit and a small backpack. It looked a lot like the one Jay'd been living out of the past few years but Tim knew it couldn't be. That backpack had been in Jay's car the day he abandoned it. The only things Tim had kept had been the laptop, the camera, and the tapes. The bag looked to be in pretty good shape and it was mostly empty. A couple scraps of blank paper, a shopping list that included primarily junk food, three markers (red, black, and green), and a slightly crumpled map of town. The map had been drawn on, places where the road was out had been scribbled over in black and a couple places had been circled in red. At the bottom was a small note 'I hope one day this may be of use to someone – Heather Mason'.

"Thank you, Heather." Tim tucked the map into his pocket, snapped the first aid kit shut and stuffed it into the backpack. Now that he had a map all he had to do was orient himself and finding Jay would be much, much easier.

Tim decided that left was as good of a direction as any and set off into the ever present fog. There hadn't been any street signs that would be any help on the way into town. Near the end of the road there was a figure moving through the fog. It was too far away to see them properly but they were stumbling, holding themselves around the middle, and hunched as if in pain. "H-Hey!" Tim called, running in order to catch up.

Tim's foot caught on something slick and he slammed face first to the ground. It took Tim a moment for his mind to catch up to his body as he lay stunned in the street. He'd fallen. Slipped on something thick and red and… Oh God this was blood! He jumped to his feet with as much care as he could muster in his rush to get away. Three long streaks of blood painted the road. It looked almost like something or someone had been hit by a car but there was no body in sight. There was too much, whatever it was couldn't have survived, could it? He glanced to where the figure had disappeared into the fog. Could the blood be from whoever that was? He had to hurry.

For the first time in his life Tim was glad he'd been running around in the woods with a mask. As he ran down the road after whoever it was he was chasing he passed more blood streaks on the ground. As much as he tried to ignore them he had to follow them. He'd lost precious time when he'd fallen and if these were from the person he had to catch up, and fast. Straight past the first intersection, past the monument to something he didn't have time to read, left here, the road turned from asphalt to gravel. He kept running. On either side of him the street was lined with barbed wire fencing. A farm? Was that person trying to get home or something? There had to still be a doctor in town right? Tim passed through a gate with another Caution sign, blood on the ground here as well but not as much, this was the right way. Another overpass, this one surrounded by barrels and barred up with wooden planks. He could see the person cowering inside against the wall. Somewhere a radio blared horrible static.

"Hey!" Tim leaned against the wooden barrier and caught his breath. "Are you ok? I didn't mean to scare you." He slipped between the cracks. "There was blood and you looked hurt I just-"

It had turned to face him. The- the monster he'd followed didn't have a face, or hands, or real arms. What had looked like it holding itself was its skin stretched tight across where its limbs should be, giving it the appearance of being in a straight jacket. From the neck to the middle of its chest was a giant gaping wound. It moved in a twitchy, unnatural way, advancing on Tim quickly. It jerked the wound open with an unnatural scream, spraying Tim with its blood.

Tim fell back against the barrier with a cry. It burned! It felt like he'd been hit with boiling water or acid. Tim grabbed one of the loose boards and swung blindly. He swung, again and again and again until it stopped moving. The radio cut out with a sudden click as the weapon collided the final time.

"What was that thing?" he backed as far away as he could, just in case it got back up. "Is it dead?" He knew he was talking to himself but it was better than silence. Anything after that scream was better than silence. It couldn't have been human, no way. He'd killed a monster. It wasn't human.

Tim curled in on himself and sat against the wall. What if it had been human? What if he was just hallucinating? With shaking hands he fished his pill bottle out of his pocket and took one. It wasn't time for his medication yet but if he had been hallucinating the- the thing, would go back to being human. And so he waited. And waited. Five minutes, that's how long they were supposed to take to kick in and the dead thing was still a monster. Was it better to know he hadn't killed a person or that he had killed a monster? This was what the girl in the cemetery had meant. There were monsters here. At least these monsters you could kill. But Jay, he'd never been much of a fighter and he couldn't be stealthy to save his life! Tim would have to find him fast.

With renewed resolve Tim picked himself up. He kept a firm grip on the wooden board, it could come in handy if more of those things showed up. As he readied himself to squeeze through the barrier again the radio blared back to life. Through the static he could make out Jay's voice, but it was too garbled to hear more than a few words. "Tim… I'm… …er… Wait…g… …el… …ca… …hel…"

"Jay?" He grabbed the radio and held it up to his ear but the broadcast had already stopped, leaving just faint static behind. "What the- what's going on in this town?" The radio was small and old, but if Jay had been able to contact him though it once he might be able to do it again. Tim clipped it to his belt and climbed through the barrier. Jay was here, he was waiting for him. All Tim had to do was find him.


	2. BAR Neely's

Tim retraced his steps down the gravel road, keeping an ear trained on the fluctuating static coming from the radio. He didn't want to miss any more transmissions from Jay or anyone else. Besides, after the overwhelming silence coming into town even radio static was a comfort no matter how many bad memories it brought back. He'd take static over silence or that… thing's screaming any day.

As he reached the end of the road he pulled the map out of his pocket. He slung the broken wooden board he'd used to kill the monster over one shoulder and shook the map loose. He did a quick scan over the scribbles Heather had made. Most of the roads were crossed out, barricaded most likely. It was obvious no one wanted people to come here anymore and he could see why. Tim had to squint to see the sign but he'd just come from Vachss Road, which ended on this side of the barrier on Lindsey Street. To the left it was supposed to be out but a quick check wouldn't hurt. He'd only assumed the thick scribbles were there to mean the road was out and he didn't want to assume wrong again like he had with the girl in the graveyard. He'd thought she meant whatever event had caused the town to be abandoned was still happening. Well, if the town was abandoned because of monsters maybe that was what she had meant. He was just dawdling now.

Tim shook himself and headed off to the left while clumsily trying to fold the map with one hand. Sure enough the road was out… Just not how Tim had thought it would be. Suddenly the road just stopped, falling away into nothingness. Sinkholes didn't get that big. Did they? Looking down into the seemingly bottomless pit Tim felt like he was staring at the end of the universe. The darkness stretched on and on and on with no hope in sight. There was something down there, the fog must have just been obscuring the bottom, it had to be. The world around him tilted and spun in a drunken dance. He was getting dizzy. He backed away quickly, fearing what would happen if he looked for any longer. Something was very, very wrong with this town.

There was a bar on the map that had been circled, he may as well head that way. Something could be there. Not even five steps back up Lindsey St. there was another of those strange creatures that looked like they wore strait jackets made of their own skin. Tim ducked out of the way just in time as it sprayed it's acidic blood towards him. No, not again, Tim ran. The radio faded the further he got from the slow moving monster, blasting louder as another appeared through the fog. They seemed to follow the same rules as the faceless thing that had followed him his whole life, interfering with technology. That was going to be useful at least. Tim quickly ducked passed this monster as well. It was blocking the street he'd passed chasing the first one so he had no choice but to keep going. He'd have to turn at the next street. The bar was on the… Right? Yeah, it had to be he came from the left. Maybe? No time to check the map, he took off down the street vaguely registering the sign labeling it Sanders as he slowed to a brisk jog. They didn't seem to be following him now.

"Holy shit…" Tim panted, out of breath from running so far so fast. He passed an alleyway and ducked inside after a quick look for any monsters. This was going to be a problem. He'd need to find a better weapon and as much as he hated it he needed it to be ranged. He needed a gun. If only he'd been sure enough of himself to carry Alex's gun with him. But no, he'd left it in that building along with whatever was left of Alex. There was no time for regrets, especially those he knew were unwarranted. If he'd taken the gun there wasn't much chance of him still being here to save Jay now.

The bar was just at the other side of the block. It was almost easy to miss with the windows covered in newspaper and the sign half fallen off. BAR Neely's. Or it had been before everything had gone to shit and the town packed up and left. The door opened easily and there didn't seem to be anything worrying inside. On the table there was a map of Silent Hill, the same as his except stained in what Tim decided to believe was wine. Several buildings were crossed out and there were lines through many of the streets. Tim double checked against his map and sure enough all of them had been marked impassable on his map as well. According to the bar's map the only way to progress further into town was through the apartments to the north. The alleyway Tim had hidden in earlier had a question mark at the opposite end.

"Looks like I'm headed there next." He mumbled to himself, copying everything onto his map in red pen. As he turned to leave the papered up glass caught his eye. In bright red paint (he hoped) was written 'There was a HOLE here. It's gone now.' What on earth could that mean? More importantly why would someone write it on a window? It had to be important for something. Tim gave the rest of the bar a more thorough look. No holes, a lot of litter and rubble but definitely not anything he'd call a hole. He circled back around the bar, planning to just leave and get on with it when suddenly his blood ran cold.

Written in thick black marks in familiar handwriting -HE IS A LIAR- on the other window was a message. "If you really wanted to see Jay again you would just die. But you're probably going to a different place than Jay is Tim."

Brian was dead. Brian couldn't have left him that message. He'd only had his back turned for a moment Brian couldn't have written it that quickly.

Tim ducked his head and left the bar. He wasn't about to lay down and die now. He didn't want to die anymore, not if Jay really was here. Alex had wanted him to kill himself and for a long while he'd kept living purely out of spite for his former friend. Now that he had even a small glimmer of hope that everything he'd sacrificed wasn't in vain he refused to die. Jay had been his reason to keep going once before and he could be his reason again. Tim would find Jay, whatever it took.

The street outside the bar was clear and the radio continued the soft buzz Tim had quickly associated with peered down the alley but the fog kept him from seeing too far. With the wooden board close quarters would either be a saving grace or a death sentence. Cautiously, Tim crept down the alley with the plank primed to swing at the first sign of a monster.

A sudden burst of static was all the warning he got as one of the creatures slithered out from beneath a van. It scuttled along twitching as if having a seizure. Tim screamed, kicking it away from him as it rushed at his legs. It was so much faster on the ground. One, two, three swings to the head before the twitching stopped. Killing the second had been no easier than killing the first. His hands were shaking and his head was starting to throb. Almost there, just keep going… Just-

At the end of the street lay a dead body. This was what he'd been pointed to

Tim had to turn away. No no no this was all too much. Monsters where bad enough but this was definitely a person. His face had been entirely destroyed past the point of recognition but there was still no doubt he'd been human. The man had wearing a faded beige hoodie and amidst the carnage Tim could make out the faint glimmer of metal in the pocket. "I'm sorry." he whispered to the corpse as he dug the key out. This was familiar in the most disturbing way. At least the last time he'd had to rob a dead man he hadn't been left to rot outside, the smell was nearly unbearable.

As soon as the key was in his hand Tim fled the alley. That was not an experience he'd like to repeat. Death was the last thing he wanted to get used to. 'Wood Side Apartment Complex' was proudly inscribed on the plastic tag attached to the key. Oh good, that's where he'd been going. It seemed that whatever had placed the notes and map at the bar was looking out for him, in some strange messed up way. Brian had always looked out for him even after he put on a mask and stopped being Brian anymore. But it wasn't Brian, it couldn't be no matter how much Tim wished it was.

To Tim's great relief there were no more monsters as he exited the alley and made his way down the street to the apartments. The apartments themselves were surrounded with a high metal fence whose gate was chained shut with a padlock. Tim hesitated, looking up at the dilapidated old building. There was much more to explore outside and every possibility that he'd walked right by Jay, but something told him he hadn't. At any rate he didn't want to be stuck out here with those things any longer. He'd search the apartments, if he didn't find Jay here he promised himself to search back outside.

The rusted old padlock popped open with surprising ease. There had been someone here, and recently. At least that's what his paranoia told him. The front lot looked barren, so Tim wasted no time getting through the front door. Aside from the disrepair that had befallen the entirety of the town the apartments didn't look too bad. Once upon a time Tim may even have considered them a good place to call home. The floorboards creaked under his weight and the wallpaper was peeling. Besides the front windows there didn't seem to be any source of light natural or otherwise. The front room was large, with a door and a staircase on the far side, a desk to his left, and a couple long dead potted plants to his right. Beneath the stairs there was a long curved retaining wall for a garden overrun with grass and weeds. Scraps of a torn up notepad scattered the floor leading from the reception desk to a small case housing a map of the building on the opposite wall.

The notepad still sat upon the desk with a couple pages filled with text remaining. He could barely make out the words in the dark room. "I'm going to write everything that I've learned so far. Maybe that will help you out somehow." he read aloud, "If you're reading this, it probably means I'm already dead. I saw those demons. They were there, I'm certain. But my friend says he didn't see anything. If that's true, does that mean that what I saw was an illusion? But whether that demon that ate human beings was real, or whether it was just some kind of hallucination that my mind dreamed up… one thing I know for sure is that I'm beyond all hope. It seems that they're attracted to light. That's why people who need light to see are their natural prey. They also react strongly to sound. If you want to go on living, you'd be better off just sitting in the dark and staying quiet. But even that probably won't save you. If you're going to try to fight them, the most important thing is to relax. It's dangerous to fire a gun while you're all crazy with fear. Take good aim, then squeeze the trigger. And don't forget to finish them off. I think most of those creatures can be killed, even if they are tougher than people. Run away. Run away!" the rest of the page and all of those scattered on the floor were filled with nothing but "Run away!" written over and over again.

Tim sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Light attracted them. Light and sound. He looked up at the darkness at the top of the stairs. He would need a light if he planned to explore much here. And worse yet he'd gotten here mid afternoon, the sun through the fog was weak but at least there was sun. As soon as the sun dipped below the horizon he'd be at a loss without something.

He crumpled the note and stuffed it in his pocket, pulled the map from it's display on the cork board and jogged up the stairs before he could have second thoughts. He wouldn't have day light for too much longer so he'd better get a move on and find Jay. He'd start on the second floor and work his way up. If there was nothing there he could look around the first floor last so he could leave easier. It was just logic, he reasoned, he was definitely not afraid of heading further up the darkened stairs. Or the oppressive darkness on the other side of the door. Or the idea that Jay probably wasn't here anyway and he was being ridiculous.

With a shake of his head Tim pushed forward into the building. There were doors lining the side of the hallway. There were… a lot of doors. This would take a while.


	3. Anything But That

The first door was jammed and the second locked, figures. The radio's hissing had grown loud. Tim looked nervously into the dark and clicked the radio off. He held his wooden board out cautiously. He was nearly blind in the dark and helpless without the radio but he had to keep moving. The light attracts them. Loud sounds attract them. So this was the way it had to be.

A soft clicking filled the air and Tim knew, without a doubt, that something had seen him. He had been moving slowly, hoping that his eyes would adjust to the lightless hall. There was a gurgling sound, like someone trying to breath through a slashed neck. Tim bolted, slamming shoulders with the Straight Jacket monster. The next door was unlocked and Tim swore as he was blinded by a bright light. The door behind him was shut and held by his entire weight and like hell he was leaving just yet. The monster outside screamed and he felt more than heard it slam against the door, but with no hands to speak of there was no way it was getting in.

Tim closed his eyes against the harsh light and listened for the shuffling of feet and soft clicking to fade as the creature gave up on chasing him. Soon there was only the sound of his own racing heart and shaking breaths to accompany him and Tim's resolve to keep the radio off shattered. The static was soft and almost soothing. There was nothing here. Nothing would hurt him here.

Shielding his eyes against the light he looked around the apartment as best he could. There were mannequins, or at least pieces of them scattered around the small living area. Tim had what he would call a healthy dislike of mannequins. No one really liked them, really, and after one came to life when he was five and started following him relentlessly- well you couldn't blame him.

He was delaying the inevitable again, he knew it. He would have to take the light and continue his search. Tim knew he wasn't a brave man, he'd never claimed to be. If the fact that he'd ran from Jessica as soon as he reasonably could didn't show it he didn't know what did. He was a coward. With a steadying breath Tim reached out and grabbed the only source of light in the apartment, the clip flashlight attached to a plain brown hoodie on a dressform standing center stage.

The radio roared to life as the armless display mannequin seated on the couch before him lurched to the side. On unsteady legs it stood, six feet of smooth featureless plastic. Until it wasn't featureless. Across the face eyes began to open, down the neck and body and legs. Winking and blinking and staring. Dozens of eyes all trained on him and his flashlight.

Tim screamed. And screamed. And didn't stop screaming until he sent the thing's head sailing off it's shoulders with a swing of his plank. The thing dropped like a dead weight and twitched once, twice, then it was still.

Time to go. There was nothing in this world or the next that could get him to stay in the same room as that thing. He'd take the Straight Jackets over them. Hell, he'd take The Operator over them.

Charging through the door and down the hall, dodging two Straight Jackets on the way he made a beeline for the stairs. He all but flew down the flight of stairs, hitting the front door of the complex with a grunt. Once Tim had made it outside he doubled over, leaning against his knees and the closed door for support. "I can't do this." he whimpered. It was pathetic and he knew it but he just… Jay would understand wouldn't he? One monster had been hard enough for the two of them to handle together.

Jay.

Tim pulled out his phone and opened the voicemail. He clicked play and let Jay's voice, shaking with fear and exertion, play into the quiet courtyard. He didn't hear the words, he didn't have to he'd heard them plenty of times before. "I keep getting attacked," Fuck, "help me," FUCK.

Tim growled in anger, at himself or the creatures standing between him and his friend he didn't know. (Yes he did, he just refused to admit it.) Between here and wherever Jay was there would be plenty of monsters. Hundreds probably. But Jay was counting on him. Jay needed him and he was not going to let him down again.

So Tim ran a hand through his hair, straightened his back, and walked back into the apartments. "For Jay." he whispered.

He never saw the figure standing just down the street watching him through the chain link fence. Not that they wanted Tim to see them. The desperately wanted him to not see them. They would be no help if he did. Not yet. So the shadow faded back into the fog, watching, waiting, until it was time.


	4. On Children and Masks

The second floor's door continued to bang and shudder as Tim climbed past it to the third floor. He was sticking with his plan to search the first floor last, and now that he had a flashlight there was no excuse keeping him from going from the top floor down. He shouldered the door open and found, to his dismay, iron bars staring in his face. All but the first two doors were blocked off from this side. With a huff Tim turned to check the only two doors so he could leave.

A glimmer through the bars caught in his light. A key? Maybe it would be helpful. If nothing else he might be able to make a distraction for those monsters downstairs.

Tim kneeled and reached out his hand to grab the key. He could just about reach it… Nearly…

"Ow!" He yelped, yanking his hand back from the offensive boot that had stomped on him.

The key was sent clattering across the floor as a young, blonde girl, no more than 10, kicked it as she ran away. Her bright blue dress fluttered round her knees as she giggled into the darkness.

"Wait!" Tim yelled after her. But no, she wasn't coming back. What on earth was a child doing in this place? No kid should be here especially ones left unsupervised to stomp on strangers' hands.

Making his way to the end of the hall Tim tried the doors as he went. First, he couldn't open, but the second opened into a plain and barren apartment. In the center of what used to be a living space sat a single red shopping cart (how did it even get up here there are no elevators in this building?). In the basket lay a shiny piece of black metal that Tim recognized instantly as a gun. The floor around the cart was littered with bullet casings and the walls pockmarked with holes. Either someone was having target practice or something very bad happened in this room.

With a trembling hand Tim took the gun in his hands. It was cold, and heavy. This wasn't the first time he'd held one, he was from Alabama, but it was the first time since Alex… Now wasn't the time to think about that. He hefted the backpack from his shoulders and stuffed the plank he'd been using into it, just in case he'd still need it. Double checking that the safety was on and that he knew how to get it off in a hurry he tucked his new weapon into the band of his pants. It was awkward, and strangely made him feel like one of those gang members he'd see on bad crime shows, the ones with next to no budget that only showed in the middle of the afternoon.

With nothing else left for him on this floor Tim made his way back to the second floor. He listened at the door for the shuffling and clicking of the straight jacket monsters before carefully easing the door open. Nothing.

"AAAAAA!" A scream, from down the end of the T intersection in the hallway.

"Jay?!" Tim took off running in the direction, trying to open every door along the way. The further he got, the louder his radio hissed. Near the end of this hall was another set of iron bars. Behind them an eerie red light shone, illuminating a figure not much different than him. It was a human, wearing a dirty beige jacket and blood stained blue jeans. Short wisps of black hair poked over the top of a black and white mask, painted in an emotionless stare.

This should not be possible. Tim stared into the eyes of the masked man, or at least where they should be. Slowly the mirror image of himself tilted it's head to the side. It was watching him watch it. There was no knowing what the masked man was thinking. Was it judging him? Taunting him? He'd thrown the mask away, gotten rid of every hint of his other self. Was it angry at Tim for that? Tim took a shaky step backwards, groping along the wall for the nob of the last door he'd passed, the only one he hadn't tried yet. The man before him took a step forward, smoothly and confidently stepping up to the bars. It wrapped a hand around one and turned it's haunting gaze to study it. Tim darted inside the room and said a quiet prayer of thanks that there was now two layers of separation between him and the phantom of who he used to be.

The room in front of him was larger than the last two he'd been in, but that brought no relief. A small television sat in the corner of the room, it's static display painted in blood splatter. In front of the tv sat a dead man slouched in his chair, dead from a bullet in his head. Tim tried not to look at the body, it made him feel sick. On the table next to the door there was a notepad with two pages laying nearby.

The first was a short note, written with a shaking hand. "Amy I'm sorry, I know you don't see them but I do. That red demon, always after me, and those things appearing around town. I can't do this anymore. I'm sorry, I love you."

Tim looked over at the body slumped in the chair, it was a sad fate. The other page was written so differently it could only have been another person.

"Three needles stand of

three different heights.

The fat, the tall and the thin.

From slow to fast they

move to the right.

Scott rests not on three,

but fifteen."

A riddle? What was this doing here? Tim left the two papers on the table where he found them and gave the room another glance. There was no harm in looking through the other doors here. This poor man wouldn't be needing anything still here.

The first room was a closet, with nothing of note. The second, what Tim assumed was supposed to be a bedroom. Along the opposite wall someone had carved words into the wall, and the only other thing in the room was a grandfather clock. Investigating the wall there were two inscriptions, one with the names Henry, Mildred, and Scott, each name with an arrow next to it. And one saying "The red demon comes for those guilty of the highest sins." This one was more ornate, with swirls carved around it like a frame.

"Henry, Mildred, Scott… Where have I heard that before?" Tim mumbled to himself. It was too familiar. But the, the riddle. Scott was mentioned there as well wasn't he?

Putting it to the back of his mind Tim turned to the clock. It read 11:45 and 15 seconds, and the hands weren't moving. "The Scars from the past will remove the nail that stops time." was written to the side of the clock in bright red marker.

That was it! Henry, Mildred, and Scott were the names given to the Hours, Minutes, and Seconds hands of a clock in a rhyme he'd had to memorize when learning how to tell time. No wonder he'd forgotten, it had been so long since he'd been in kindergarten. So he had to move the hands on the clock to the positions shown in the carving? No problem. The glass front of the clock wouldn't budge but a swing from his plank of wood opened it up well enough. Careful not to cut his hand on the broken glass he twirled the clock to the correct time, 9:10. With a soft click the clock was easily moved to the side, showing a hole between the apartments just wide enough to squeeze through.

So, this was what he had to expect from Silent Hill. The town didn't obey the rules of logic so be it. He'd do what Heather obviously had to resort to and make note of every locked door and every strange blockade if he had to. He quickly pulled out his map to make note of the passage, as well as mark the blocked areas. He'd made it to the other side of the bars on this floor.

He'd made it to the other side of the bars. Where the masked man was. "Fuck."


End file.
